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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Columbia?

No.

This survey has NO credibility.[/quote]

Have to admit it, New York does give off one massive edge (and will only get bigger), especially going into the 21st century with young people pouring into the cities. Plus it's an Ivy and people associate it with Wall Street and so on. It will only keep rising in rankings, popularity, and prestige as long as it gets to keep a top 5 ranking and more people move into the cities. Even COVID-19 won't reverse this trend. Columbia was historically a top 3 school during the 1960s, then urban decay and white flight during the 70s and 80s brought it to the verge of bankruptcy along with the rest of New York. Lots of good professors gone and students left. There were also campus riots. But now it's on a comeback.

I went to an HYP for undergrad and knew kids from Columbia. Spent time in Morningside Heights as a grad student too. Back in the days it was probably the least desirable Ivy. Just went coed, situated in a dangerous neighborhood inside a dangerous city. It was just plain dirty and filthy. There were some high achievers from local publics like Stuy or Bronx Science but a lot more were just the urban, hipster, and creative types who are dead set on living in a city and won't really consider anywhere else, those from my prep school who went there mostly didn't really fit in but at Columbia those misfits were the mainstream. John Lennon's son went there - which probably gives you a general idea of their student body. Now the city experience has drastically improved and the demographics is lot more like HYP, plus a lot of international wealth, more so than you can imagine. The international wealthy don't send their kids to Princeton or Yale anymore (or never to begin with) but to schools in big cities like Harvard, Columbia, or Penn/Wharton. Would I have gone to Columbia in 2021 instead? Probably. DS is also looking into Columbia and didn't even bother looking at my alma mater.

Duke used to be that high, like really high, when everyone was moving into the suburbs and the countryside during the 80s and 90s, then it just stopped being popular and went into decline in rankings on all fronts: Forbes, US News, you name it, because it no longer has the pull for high-achieving kids these days. Was #12 last year I think, first time in 40 years it fell out of the rankings. How times have changed! Unless it's a southern school, it's also no longer the top college where all the prep school kids would go outside of HYP or Dartmouth (was the #4 ivy back in my age). To give you an example, Andover used to send a dozen kids to Duke every year but in 2021, just one. Eight or nine went to Columbia. Exeter sent 40 to Columbia in the past 3 years but just 5 to Duke. [/quote]

Some of what you are saying is not correct. I went to Columbia in the 1970's. Many brilliant students from all over the US. I was from New England and was very excited about attending Columbia. Nice dorms ( eg certainly in my freshman and senior years ) , New York was still great with the museums and restaurants. Tons of great teachers. City bankruptcy threats under Mayor Beame had nothing to do with our small classes and having brilliant teachers.  also, New York then as now is like the New York Yankees bench depth of tons of great players and great teachers. No shortage of them. The students were top students. I had all A's in my high school and so did most of my college classmates  Also, many visiting professors from Princeton were on-campus teaching and they told me how stimulating the campus was. I was sad to have graduated, and from Columbia I went on scholarship to University of Oxford.

I remember having conversations in 1971 about Ivy League choices,and after HYP, at the time, I distinctly remember seeing Columbia as the intellectual choice. who could say no to small classes, the United Nations, museums, and unique restaurants and bookshops all at one's choosing ? I felt then as now it was a fantastic investment ( of my father's money).

Brown was the 'hot' college among the Ivies, but it felt like a gimmick for its trustees to permit no formal course requirements and to allow all pass-fail - a way to cover the fact that it was the poorest of the Ivy League Colleges in terms of the endowment. I didn;believe it in 1971 and I don't believe it now as a suitable way to educate 18-year-olds.

The 1970's issues affected every American city, not just New York. All were facing the courage of budgets, bankruptcy threats, drug-related crime.

Riots ? No riots. Wrong noun choice.  You mean the famous strike of 1968 against the Vietnam war and the gym construction ?  The brilliance of the New York Times was able to present the student strike, being 25-minute subway ride away. A testament to the rapid infrastructure of the subway and bus systems and world-class media in a world-class city. The following year, in 1969, many other major universities had strikes and in 1970, kent State atrocities, so the 1968 strike at Columbia decreased by comparison to those in 1970 at Kent State and elsewhere across the US.  In fact, the Columbia strike proved to be something of an intellectual leader for strikes at Harvard in 1969 and elsewhere during the following two years. [/quote]

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